Say it with Pictures

Cue (NZERS), Issue 18, 28 February 1945, Page 4

Say it with Pictures

— By

To say it with pictures, we are not F dependent on photos, drawings, paintings, or the cinema; those are only other ways of doing what we constantly do in speech and writing. We tell lies every hour of the day, and the truths we wish to express are all the clearer because of it; in half cur conversation we do not mean what we say or say what we mean, but we are not misunderstood or accused of lying.

On the contrary, cur language is all the richer and more vivid because we add colour and illustration to emphasise our meaning. Thus, when we ’’hit the nail on the head, make a big splash, bring home the bacon, strike out, shoot a line, ride for a fall, hit the high spots, are put on the mat, turn up trumps, go for a skate, take the lid off, or drop a brick,” and so on in hundreds of similar expressions, we seldom mean these things literally, but are using more vivid ways of conveying ideas to other people’s minds. We all use this picture-language, whether we learnt about Figures of Speech at school or notfor figures of speech they are.

Picturesque language may be of three kinds—that which calls up mcn_ tai pictures by ordinary words (one Kiwi thinks that Michelangelo’s ’’Last Judgment” in the Sistine Chapel is too crowded with figures; he said it looks ’’like a basket of eels”) ; that which- consists of picturesque words (’’'Shufti”, ’’prang” 'and ’’battlebowler” are good modern examples, not forgetting ’’ambopeep” for a peep converted into an ambulance for jungle conditions) ; and language which is picturesque by vivid and varied profanity. It is unnecessary to give examples of this third type, and so’ we

regretfully leave it, pausing only to wish that its exponents whom we hear most often would give it the spice of variety, for the four-letter words are greatly over-worked and the timedishonoured adjectives grow painfully monotonous. Too many oaths are dull,. outworn and ineffective compared with those that are off the beaten verbal track; there is vigour and originality in such expressions as Maurice Walsh’s ’’Thundering red-hot flagstones of : hell’!” In passing, a word on slang. Some slang results from mental laziness the übiquitous ’’bloody” is little more now than lazy slang. Some slang; comes from a desire for variety, which has that to commend it; for example, to ’’hit the silk” instead of ’’bale out”. Some slang expressions are pearls of humour which help to enliven. ■ dull routine, as in ’’armoured cow” .for tinned milk or ’’Mae West” for lifejacket. Language 'is frequently en- ' riched by slang,words which are so apt or so colourful that, despite protests, from pedants, they soon become accepted standard speech. Journalese seldom has anything IQ; commend it, but for its unconscious humour one recalls the New Zealan * provincial paper which, in reporting a rugby match, spoke of a player wo ’’piloted the oval sphere between w uprights’’, and which, in a - rhapsody; on Spring, declared that the trees we ; ’’now decked in their green garbage . While on the subject-of unconscious, humour — Tommy officer wonder a. why the Kiwis laughed when he spoiw of 2 NZEF’S General Fraserberg • What follows is chiefly with language which throws nvi tures on the mental screen. j

article is not concerned with descriptive writing as such; that may be found in the great literary works. Where, for example, could one find a lovelier description than the passage which tells of the ’’miracle of the Irish June” in ..Don Byrne’s ’’Hangman’s House’’.- a clearer picture of storm at sea than in Joseph Conrad’s ’’Typhoon”, a better summary of the sight and the sound than in Masefield’s magnificent line, ’’The long line of running surf goes booming down the beach”, or a tenser account of man’s despair than in . John /Steinbeck’s account of the dust-storms in ’’Grapes of Wrath”. However, the theme of this article is not the gems that delight only the lovers .of books, but the picturesque in what one hears and reads from day to day.

The most commonly-used, method of giving point to what we say is that of introducing a telling comparison (Metaphor and /Simile to us when we were at school). Here are a few, culled from various 7 sources:—”Hula-hula dancers with ball-bearing hips” (Roy Houser seems to speak from close observation here). ’’Fighter planes spitting like alley-cats’’ (Time). ”He dresses like an unmade bed” (Life) ( mud sculpture in the evening sky” .(Olive Kean). ’’She barged in with children < like a bomber es’4f(. v’ V fighters” (H. Mynn'ing). , TQ i ai hke diamonds on a canopy of ™ VCt ,(W. J Lock& 1 ’’The wind 'i-a.ceiiing the grasses” ‘ (Kipling). . ?

vnrd 0&e wil ° m ake language live use / 10u * other means a « well, which P ena on keen observation, imaginaa for the right word, tali’, /T? e . is a short man who .walks fe q ;. (Driscoll ) exactly sums up the SAinn tlOn \ as does also ”A woman ‘ barnacled, with jewellery” rnvp * ~,? wou be difficult to imon The dogs ignored each, other

watchfully” (E. Bobb), or ”Oue of those women who go through life demanding to see the manager” (G Patrick). - ’

Our 'minds sit up and take notice when a new twist is given to some well-known expression or when some challenging paradox is thrown to the intellectual lions. In our own day, G. K. Chesterton and G. B. Shaw have usually (succeeded in these ways in stimulating thought. Thus, Chesterton: ’’Christianity has not been tried and found wanting: Christianity has been found difficult and not tried". And thus, Shaw: ’’All great truths begin as blasphemies”. ’’Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.” Some of the best wise-cracks, too, are based on this ’twist;,of the normal. It was Charlie McCarthy who said, ”I’ll give you a thumb-nose sketch of him,” and Matt Weinstock who spoke of ’’John L. Lewis eye-browbeating the public”. Its author must have been mightily discouraged when his book suffered this review. ”It’s the kind of book you can put down”. And what fellow overseas would not rejoice to have coined this compliment as the beginning to his letter,’’Dearest Chin-up Girl”? ' A sidelight on / war on the home front appears in the definition or rationing as ’’Less and less of more

and more oftener and oftener.” (Arcadia Newsletter.) . Humour frequently gets its kick from the picturesque,-the incongruous,

and the apt. Hats, off to Bob Hope for such contributions as, ’’WiUkie has his eye on the presidential chair, but look. what Roosevelt has on it!” and ’’The rumba is a dance where the front of you goes along nice and smooth like a Cadillac and the back of you makes like a jeep.” Red Skelton evokes our amused sympathy with his far-fetched, ”My tires aren’t so good. The air has begun to show through.” It is a hypocritical fashion of many people to groan at the pun, „ which some long-dead sobersides described as the lowest form of wit. Such groans are usually the sour grapes of those who would > really like to have been first in With the jest. . This writer humbly takes his stand with Shakespeare and Lamb in the matter. Of course, there , are puns AND puns; a couple worth mentioning are ’’multiplying rabbitly” and ’’The father of eleven—gone stork mad.” When Jimmy Fidler says, ’’She is far from her old sylph,” one feels that ’’She’s got something there.” The pun * and parody add to the gaiety of nations, and war becomes less grim when one can think of ’’base wallahs” as ’’Paragraph Troopers of the Chairborne Command.”

As war affects the whole of life, it cannot fail to enrich and add variety to- language. Whole books could be written about war-time vocabulary and slang. ’’Had it” has, fortunately, almost had it, but there are many expressions from this war which deserve to live on. Some which spring to mind,' either for the pictures they conjure up, for their humour or for effectiveness in various ways, arc: — ’’Blitz, stonk. wiped, emu parade, hedge-hopping, walkie-talkie, latrinogram, bludge. air-strip. Chicago piano, bellyaching, maleesh, natter, and bowler hat.” These and others such as the

old friends, ’’Come and get it” and ’’Feet on the floor” will always arouse memories wheresoever two or three Grim Digs are gathered together. . Up-to-date descriptions of happenings in this war are sometimes couched in terms that would have been unintelligible ten years ago. For example, here is a concise account of an aerial dog-fight. ”We ran into- a flock; of FWs. After potting a couple ourselves, we caught a packet and found „ ourselves in the .drink.” Those who speajf of Sweet Fanny Adams, and those who enjoy Spam, may be interested to- know that the original Fanny Adams was murdered in England in 1812, and cut up by her murderer. At that time, lower ratings in the Navy adopted her name for any form of preserved meat rations.

Invective adds 'its contribution .to picturesque language. We joyfully remember the Hon. Robert iSenuple’s . ’’funning shoes” and ’’spittoon philoso- : phers.” But to the Rt. Hon. Winston Churchill go not only admiration for his superb statesmanship, but also enthusiasm for his oratory and delighted chuckles at his descriptions of Hitler - and Mussolini. In. the midst of the world’s grim struggles he finds time to make us laugh with apt description. Thus he speaks of Mussolini as ’’The bull-frog of the Pontine Marshes’’ and ’’Hitler’s' tattered lackey.’’ ' - Let this article conclude with a choice example of what we mean by picturesque language,/a jewel from the Churchill treasure which sparkled even in the darkness gather-ing-round a then lonely Britain. ’’Herr Hitler ... has managed to subjugate for the time being most of the finest races in Europe, and his little Italian accomplice is trotting along, hopefully, and hungrily, but rather 'wearily and very timidly, at his side.’’ '